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THE FORTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY 



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DELIVERED BEFORE 



Wxt iFire Bcvartmcnt 

«F THE 

CITY OF NEW-YORK, 

JULY 4, 1823. 



BY CHARLES P CLINCH; 

A MEMBER. 



POBLISHED BY REQ,UEST OF THE COMMITTEE OF ARRAIfGEMENTS. 



■7 • 

/ 

NEW-YORK: 

R. fa W. Si G. BARTOW, 250 PEARL-STREET. 

Cfray & BuDce, Printer." ' 



l>2 3 



Firemen's Hall, July 9th, 1823. 
At a meeting of the Firemen's Committee of Arrangements for celebrating 
the forty-seventh Anniversary of American Independence, 

" Resolved,W\a.t a copy of the oration, pronounced by Mr. Charles P. Clinch, 
before the Firemen of the City of New- York, in the Market-street Church, on 
the 4th inst., be requested for publication." 

Extract from the minutes. 

IJZZIAH WENMAN, Chairman. 
NIEL GRAY, Secretary. 



ORATION. 



Fellow-Citizens — 

We have assembled to celebrate the birth-day ot 
our national Independence — to rejoice in the nativi- 
ty of our country's sovereignty — to exhibit to the 
world the grateful and proud remembrance in whicli 
we hold that auspicious day, when these United 
States of America assumed, never to relinquish, a 
name and character, separate and distinct among 
the nations of the earth : — separate as the eastern 
and western hemispheres, — distinct as the governing 
principles of liberty and slavery ! 

What, fellow-citizens, on this occasion ought to 
be the feelings of our hearts, and the subject of our 
mind's contemplation ? — How shall we rightly dis- 
charge our duty as patriots and freemen on this anni- 
versary of our political birth ? 

Fellow-citizens ! we can only prove that we justly 
prize the signal interposition of divine Providence, 
manifested in the happy termination of our revolu- 
tionary struggle, by correctly appreciating the rights 
and privileges we enjoy as members of this repub- 
lic; — by keeping in the holiest sanctuary of our 
hearts, the venerated memory, the godlike estimation 
of our heroic forefathers, those prominent instru- 
ments, in the hand of heaven, in effecting the great 
work of American Independence ; — by contrasting 
our own with the governments and institutions of 
other nations, cherishing the difference in favour of 
our superiority, and by lifting our hearts in thank- 
fulness for the full and exceeding measure of peace^ 



prosperity, and happiness, which has fallen to the lot 
of our beloved country. 

Let us then, fellow-citizens, engage in those 
contemplations which will teach us to value our 
national benefits, and awaken our gratitude for the 
blessings we individually enjoy ! Let us pursue that 
thought, which leads through what we might have 
been to what we are, — looking back to those em- 
phatic times which tried men's souls, — to the gloomy 
period of seventeen hundred and seventy-five, when 
the clouds of oppression which had long darkened 
the horizon, closed above our heads, blackening the 
blue sky of American Freedom ! Happy for us they 
did so ! — Happy are we fellow-citizens, that the feel- 
ings of our then esteemed mother country toward 
America were insulting in the extreme, her conduct 
oppressive beyond example ; — happy for us that the 
cloven foot of tyranny was thus early disclosed, be- 
fore our interests, affections, and prejudices were 
more intimately entwined with those of our trans- 
atlantic brethren— -before habit, education, and the 
example of our fathers had taught us to receive as a 
serious thing, that weakest and most absurd of all 
pretended obligations — allegiance to hereditary 
power !— -before these shackles of the mind, growing 
with our growth, and strengthening with our strength, 
had become of sufficient magnitude to bow our necks 
to the yoke, they were burst asunder at the ap- 
proach of more galling fetters ; — had the assault 
upon our liberties been reserved for a later day, the 
strengthened influence of the mental bonds I have 
mentioned, might have prevented successful resist- 
ance. — What have I said } Fellow-citizens, I recall 
the sentiment ! the spirit of Independence, 

" Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye !" 

was inherent in the bosoms of our fathers ! — it 
walked with them in fellowship in the forest's shade — 
thevheld communion with it in the mountain breeze — 



it was a boon from heaven ! which knew no death, 
no restriction, save from the hand of its Creator! — - 
handed down in its original purity from generation 
to generation, whenever human means had endea- 
voured to prison its free thoughts, it would have at 
once resolved itself on public action — 

" Its power resistless and its will command !" 

What but the heaven-born confidence of exalted 
and virtuous minds could have supported the heroes 
of our revolution in the persevering pursuit of their 
immortalizing vocation? — what but might of soul 
could have prompted and sustained resistance to the 
matchless force which the enemies of American 
liberty arrayed against it ? Look at the then exist- 
ing state of our country ! Our fathers feeling toward 
the people of Great Britain as toward children of 
the same parent — to the government bowing with 
dignified submission, as to the executive of the laws 
which controlled them, they raised their voices 
more in sorrow than in anger at the first approach 
of oppression. Yet still the fiend advanced ! Fellow- 
citizens ! these were stirring times ! Inexperienced 
in the art of war, unprovided with munitions, unpre- 
pared with means, aware of the felon fate which 
awaited their lives, heart sick at the stigma which 
would attach itelf to their characters in case of un- 
successful opposition, yet still the sacred fire of free- 
dom burning on the anointed altar of every patriot 
heart, and every sword and soul obeying its inspir- 
ing summons to arms, our fathers, supported by 
that power which did not leave them nor forsake 
them, dared in the presence of majesty to wear the 
port of freemen, and waking the battle cry of liberty, 
flung forth her banners to the breeze of heaven ! 
Scowling dark and fierce the tempest of a monarch's 
vengeance came upon them ! but as the cloud 
of the midnight storm gives added lustre to the 



lightning's flash, so the darkness ot" oppression ho- 
vering over our land displayed the electric light ot 
liberty's spirit throughout an awakened continent ! 

Then, indeed, hke a band of brothers joined, our 
gallant fathers bared their bosoms to the storm ! 
they knew not, they cared not what was their chance 
of success! they looked not abroad for succour! 
each patriot brought into the field a stout heart and 
a ready hand, and felt that his brother did tiie same 
— local restrictions and religious dissensions were 
remembered no more, swayf^d by one mind they 
arrayed themselves for conflict, they knew no alter- 
native, they sought none! The demon of slavery 
had his foot on the threshold, he must be beaten 
back, or enter the sacred asylum of home, by 
trampling on the mangled corse of the husband and 
the father! With unexampled fideiiiy, patience, 
and perseverance they engaged in a seven years' vi ar 
of unparalleled privation in defence of their rights! 
of our rights, fellow citizens ! of the rights of millions, 
yet unborn ! for us, for them, they fought, and bled, and 
died ! — for posterity all their days of battle and their 
nights of danger were encountered ! for the welfare 
of generations yet to come, they wandered from the 
heaven of their family firesides and parted from kin- 
dred and friends ! they gave themselves a sacrifice 
that the patrimony of liberty and independence 
might descend to us and to our children for ever ! — 
Fellow-citizens, lives their one who claims this land 
of the graves of such heroes for his birth place, 
who looking back upon the heroic deeds of the 
patriots and martyrs of our revolution, finds not his 
heart kindling within him at the contemplation of 
the beauty of virtue, and offering up on the shrine 
of gratitude and enthusiastic admiration each selfish 
thought, as a tribute to the devotion of our fathers 
in the cause of liberty and justice? — No! fellow- 
citizens, there can be none " with soul so dead" as 



nottoiieel his '^ bosom rise'' at the meiiiory of such 
chastened heroism. Time with his eternal hps 
will tell to the latest ages of posterity the conduct 
of our ancestors ; their example will live a star of 
glory in the west, shedding the light of wisdom and 
of virtue upon a contemplating world! 

First in order as in character on the record of our 
country's emancipation stands the battle of Lexing- 
ton ! — The onset on the part of our enemies was a 
deed of foul oppression, in the true nature of tyranny 
unprovoked, unlooked for. Then burst forth the 
hitherto restrained impulse of hberty, never again 
to be enthralled !— Rushing to arms at the sound of 
the musket's crash, our brave countrymen needing 
no preparation but the seizure of a weapon, no ex- 
hortation to battle but the opportunity of fighting 
for their immunities, leaving their teams in the halt 
furrowed tield and casting aside the implements oi 
husbandry, they hastened to the glorious conflict, 
where the watchword was liberty or death ! There 
the untutored votarist of freedom and the accom- 
plished minions of monarchy strove for ascendancy 

the glorious result gave strength to the confidence^ 
and certainty to the hopes of our fathers; and was 
their first illustration of that ennobling truth that on 
him whose mind is free the fetters of slavery can 
never be imposed ! The physical force of combined 
creation cannot subjugate that people, who united 
in soul and sentiment, resolve 

" To dig no land lor tyrants but their graves!" 

Next oil the list of aggression, followed the procla- 
mation of rebellion, denouncing the bitterest ven- 
geance of the British king against his American sub- 
jects, who acting from the dictation of those virtuous 
precepts, which heaven Imd implanted in their hearts, 
dared to peril their lives, their fortunes, and their sa- 
cred honour, in the cause of right. Then came to 
pass the prophetic declaration of Chatham, offered in 



8 

vain to the British ministry, in his appeal for justice 
to America. " The very first drop of blood that is 
drawn, will make a wound never to be healed." It 
did so ! and our fathers resolved to know the hand 
that shed it, as that of a parent no more. And 
in obedience to the prompting spirit of wisdom and 
justice, on the.fourth of July, seventeen hundred and 
seventy-six, they declared themselves a free, sove- 
reign, and independent people ! Then with renewed 
ardour, they pursued the defence of their rights, and 
enforced the declaration of their sentiments at the 
bayonet's point — till at the battle of Yorktown, they 
destroyed the power which the enemies of American 
liberty possessed in our country. Near half a centu- 
ry has rolled away, and the nation to whom they 
gave political existence, still maintains the charac- 
ter which their virtues and heroism imparted ! — The 
scion of liberty which they planted, has grown a 
parent tree, and the wearied and oppressed of all na- 
tions find rest and shelter beneath it. " It is alight 
and a landmark on the cliffs of fame," 

Where freedom's banner to the globe unfurled, 
Beckons the free hearts of the boundless world .' 

How often, fellow-citizens, on the anniversary of 
this auspicious day, have we listened with delight 
and instruction to the rehearsal of the attributes of 
the "father of his country" — to the virtues, talents, 
and patriotism of him who was " first in war, first in 
peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen — " 
the honoured agent of Almighty power — the observed 
of all observers — WASumcTON ! But the theme is as 
inexhaustive in its source as the unceasing flow of 
good, which every action of his public life, served 
to secure to his country for ever — 

^' Age cannot wither it, nor custom stale, 
Its infinite variet3\" 

We seek in vain to enhance his glory by contrast- 



9 

ing him with the heros, patriots and sages of ancient 
times. History affords no parallel to the " peril and 
circumstance" of our revolution ; and of the years 
immediately succeeding the acknowledgment of our 
Independence. She must pause in attempted pane- 
gyric, and rest satisfied with the emphatic declara- 
tion " he finished the work which was given him to 
do." 

Surveying all things with a quiet intelligence which 
spoke wise and irresistihle resolution, and a mind ca- 
pable of drawing speedy and correct conclusions, 
and of acting at once upon its determinations, no 
contingency was unprovided for, no advantage was 
suffered to pass unheeded. Throughout the vary- 
ing history of our revolution, his heart was single to 
the welfare of his country, his eye ever watching 
over her for good. The confidence and affection of 
his countrymen, knew no change ! the contempla- 
tion of his virtues was the cherisher of their hopes ; 
they lost not sight of its influence until that glorious 
reality, their everlasting freedom^ was secured. 

Never lived the man whom his compatriots, and 
the world so delighted to honour ! the chastened vir- 
tue, the benevolent goodness, the exalted integrity 
of his character, demanded and received justice and 
admiration from his enemies, and none are more tru- 
ly aware of his greatness, than the nation from whose 
unhallowed designs, he protected his infant coun- 
try. First in war, he led her armies to victory, or 
brought them with unparalleled ingenuity, from the 
unsuccessful field, to strike in the cause of liberty, 
on another and a better day; possessed of unequalled 
address, his wisdom ever acted the assistant to his 
bravery ; and his abilities as a soldier, was a con- 
stant theme for admiration in the camp of his foes. 
First in peace, the exalted estimation of his country- 
men in regard to his powers of mind, burst forth with 
enthusiastic delight, to proclaim him the first Chief 



io 

Magistrate of the Union, after the adoption of the fe- 
deral constitution. Here again he had difficulties to 
overcome, and abilities to display, second only to 
those which brought his country out of bondage. 
But assured of his own integrity and firmness, and 
confiding in the blessing of heaven for its all wise 
direction, and assembling around him that patriotic 
phalanx, Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox, Randolph, Jay, 
he advanced to meet the threatening danger. His 
wisdom, and courage produced a result of unexam- 
pled success — our national concerns soon " floated 
on the full tide of successful experiment," and respect 
abroad, quiet at home, prosperity and happiness 
flowed from the measures of his administration ! 
First in the hearts of his countrymen, how shall we 
exemplify this truth ? all expressive silence may 
best declare its existence ; — " more eloquent than 
words" the bounding impulse of gratitude in every 
patriot bosom proclaims it; while the bowing of the 
heart, in meek and lowly reverence, at the contem- 
plation of his virtues declares the divinity of his good- 
ness ; and the continued aspirations of a nation's love, 
ask his reward from heaven. 

Fellow-citizens, it becomes us to inquire, how far 
have we walked in the paths and precepts of the im- 
mortal patriots of our revolution ? how far have we, 
in latter days, shown ourselves worthy of the glori- 
ous legacy, bequeathed us in their example ? — let 
our devotion to the liberties of our country, and our 
maintenance of her rights declare ! — In the late re- 
newed struggle for the support of our immunities, 
the spirit of " seventy-six" was again enkindled in 
every American bosom ; the pollution of the enemy's 
footstep was washed with his blood from our soil, 

" And Liberty walk'd like a God on the waves." 

Emblazoned for ever on the records of fame, stand 
the names of Jackson, Brown, Scott, and Croghan : 



11 



of Hull, Decatur, Jones, Brainbridge, Perry, Mac- 
donough ! and from the cherished grave. Pike, 
Covington, Lawrence, Ludlow, Burrows, and the 
remaining martyrs who have 



sunk to rest 



With all their country's wishes blest," 

Speak in a voice more emphatic than the deep toned 
thunder. But the rude storm of war has passed 
away ! the song of peace in our land, and the cha- 
racter of our country sails unblemished on the tide 
of Time. 

Yet ever ready at the call of justice; ever active- 
ly attentive to the petitioning voice of suffering hu- 
manity ; behold our countrymen going forth to battle 
in her cause, and braving death at the hands of the 
pirate miscreants who lately infested the West Indian 
seas, — behold, and give a tribute to the fate of Allen. 

'' The young, the beautiful, the brave," 
who hastening to redress the wrongs of his fellows, 
fell a victim to his enthusiastic gallantry in the dis- 
charge of his duty. 

'' Pride of his country's banded chivalry," 
his character has been portrayed to, us by a highly 
gifted, and distinguished bard of our own, in a strain 
which might have created the hero it sung ! the coup- 
let which should be inscribed to his memory, on eve- 
ry patriot heart, tells with all the eloquence of truth, 
the consistency of his virtue in life and death — 

" He lived as mothers wish their sons to live, 
He died as fathers wish their sons to die !" 

Turning aside from the contemplation of our be- 
loved home of liberty and peace, we behold France 
in her first attempt to shake off the thraldom of "le- 
gitimate" slavery, looking not to the Giver of every 
good and perfect gift, but losing sight of the glori- 
ous attributes of freedom, which are justice and 
virtue, and giving herself ud to all the unrestrained 



12 

licentiousness of which the human heart is capable ! 
We behold Napoleon Bonaparte, grasping the slack- 
ened reins of government, directing its course aright, 
and with the blessing of Divine Providence, bring- 
ing good out of evil — we behold him in his march of 
mind, changing, 

"As withtlie stroke of the enchanter's wand," 
the political state of Europe, which had so long 
lain dormant with all its imperfections on its head — 
we behold* him the worker of improvements, the au- 
thor of human benefits over which the stagnant in- 
tellect of legitimate sovereigns had slumbered for 
ages, the meliorator of the condition of mankindo 
The crowned heads of Europe were, in consequence, 
combined against him, and the miscreant panders of 
their purposes, filled the world with misrepresenta- 
tion and falsehood, in relation to his character. 
Blessed be heaven! the radiance of truth has burst 
through the clouds and darkness with which envy, 
malice, and fear had overshadowed it, and man with 
the glorious light of knowledge beaming in his mind 
has become accountable before the judgment seat 
of God for the estimation in which he holds him ! 

No need, fellow-citizens, to review his character 
or to recount his deeds ; the history of his life and 
the motives of his actions are open before us ; but 
we will pause for a moment in the pleasing contem- 
plation of the homage he has done to virtue, of the 
just and complimentary tribute he has paid to our 
national character, to his own discernment, and to 
the chastity of his ambition in his declaration that, 
had America been his sphere of action, he would 
have walked in the path and precepts of our Wash- 
ington ! The existence of such a sentiment in the 
breast of Napoleon demands, and should receive 
from us, fellow-citizens, an acknowledgment and 
consideration surpassed only by that with which its 
practical illustration would have been ennobled ! 



13 

Deceived by the exalted character of his own 
nature into a belief of the magnanimity of Great 
Britain, he surrendered himself her prisoner — she 
made him the prisoner of that tyrant junto, who like 
the arch enemy of mankind, assuming the appear- 
ance of an angel of light, have stolen an attribute of 
the deity and called themselves holy — the Holy 
Alliance ! Yes ! 

*'Like the baseless fabric of a vision" — 

it was indeed a vision! the misplaced confidence 
of Napoleon in the justice of England melted into 
thin air : that nobility of soul, in whose existence 
he had implicit belief, because he felt a power with- 
in himself capable of executing its dictates, lived 
not where he sought it ! Europe ! the page of thy 
history is for ever defiled by the record that he acted 
from an exalted confidence in the magnanimity of 
his enemies, and died the victim of his error. 

There, in a far distant isle of the ocean — at once 
his prison and his grave — alone and solitary as his 
greatness. Napoleon Bonaparte sleeps the sleep of 
death — the sacrifice to a policy on the part of Great 
Britain so mean, so contracted, tlxA the insect soul 
of the merciless minion whom she employed to work 
her will upon him, embraced, it with avidity and 
ease, and had room and to spare for the conception 
of schemes of villany on his own account, private 
and pitiful as cowardice ! While the blackness of 
a deed like this remains upon the escutheon of En- 
gland, her character no more shall 

*' Smile in the world's approving eyes" — 

It will be the detested contemplation of millions who 
look not yet upon the light — ^let her also look to it ! 
But Napoleon can never cease to be, though the 
malice of his enemies is more insatiate than the 
grave ! his brilliant example blazing to the admira- 
tion of the world, makes him for ever himself in 



14 

influence and authority ! The never dying fact that 
his hand quenched the licentious flame of the revo- 
lutionary spirit of France, and awakened in its stead 
the genial light of liberty and justice, proves to the 
world that the overthrow of kings and of hereditary 
power may be effected without that rapine and blood- 
shed, and the destruction of every thing sacred and 
holy, which has hitherto in the estimation of virtuous 
minds made the remedy worse than the evil, and 
prevented the ennobling spirit of freedom from be- 
ing nourished in many a righteous heart ! It is his 
demonstration of this truth which is the cause of the 
immortal hatred born to him and to his memory by 
the Holy Alliance and their worshippers. But thank 
Heaven, their hate is his earnest of the cherished 
memory in which ages yet to come will hold 
him! 

France ! thy liberties — alas ! the hunters have 
them now ! 

" Yet, Freedom ! yet thy banner, torn but flying. 
Streams like the thunder storm against the wind ; 
Thy trumpet voice, though broken now and dying, 
The loudest still the tempest leaves behind ?" 

To Greece the spirit of her ancient days has 
paid an angel's lingering visit. Let it dwell w ith her 
for ever ! — and if the earth hold yet another seed 
like that which furnished forth the being of our 
Washington ; warmed by freedom's sun and cherish- 
ed by the dews which justice weeps upon the man- 
gled rights of mankind, — let it grow in giant strength ! 
but if there live none such, oh ! let the grave send 
back some guardian spirits to lead their country 
in her struggle for liberty, a second time to glory's 
pinnacle ! — 

" Of the three hundred, grant but three, 
To make anew Thermopylae !" 

Behold! fellow-citizens, now on the throne of 
France, placed there by the Holy Alliance, those 



16 

arch enemies of the rights of man, one who, in per- 
son and attribute, is the quintessence, of kingly legi- 
timacy ! — Behold his armies marching into a neigh- 
bouring territory in the insulting absence of a 
declaration of war, and proclaiming it as their 
purpose to restore the imagined rights of an indi- 
vidual to the destruction of a nation's immunities ! 
Oh sacred freedom ! implant thy spirit in the breast 
of every Spaniard ! let their offering to thee be the 
extermination of their invaders ! and may the echo 
of their battle-cry awaken the genius of renovation 
throughout the western hemisphere. 

Let us, fellow-citizens, on this birth day of our 
independence, one and all, as a tribute to the memo- 
ry of our fathers, resolve to live stedfast in their 
political faith, the fruit of which is the freedom and 
happinessof our country ! — The primitive and pure 
spirit of republicanism is in strict accordance with 
the precepts of Christianity ! The foundation of mo- 
rality, the rock of justice, it creates the disposi- 
tion which requires not of our fellows that which we 
will not bestow upon them — which does unto them as 
we would have them do unto us ! This is the divinity 
we worship in the dictates of freedom ! In the ex- 
istence of such principles, slavery has no thought, 
oppression no hope, and man discards 

" The will and power to make his fellow mourn.'' 

Brother firemen ! for the first time as a body, have 
we on this day of our national jubilee, embraced 
the privilege we enjoy of publicly uniting in the 
expression of our sentiments and feelings as a free 
people ! Next to the possession of virtue is the 
admiration of its excellence ; so, next to the glory 
of being engaged in the rescue of our country, is our 
estimation of the deed ! Therefore, we have done 
well in this first exhibition of the love and admiration 
which we bear to the workers of our independence. 



It; 

and ot our gratitude and pride as freemen. Let it 
not be the last ! As citizens of this great republic, 
the preservation of our liberties, and the faithful 
discharge of our duty to ourselves, to each other, and 
to posterity, is an easy and a glorious task ; effected 
by keeping inviolate the laws, and institutions, and 
governing principles which our fathers handed down 
to us ! And how shall we accomplish this ? — Pre- 
serve the fountain holy and its emanating streams 
will be undefiled ! By bestowing the highest office 
in the gift of the people only on him whose educa- 
tion, precepts, and practice accord with those virtu- 
ous and just principles of republicanism which 
secured the blessii)g of heaven on our struggle for 
liberty, and of whose integrity and firmness in un- 
changing devotion to the best interests of his coun- 
try, he even tenor of his political Hfe, has given us 
the conviction of truth. In the language of the 
farewell address of Washington, " the period for a new 
election of a citizen to administer the executive government 
of the United States is not far distant — and the time 
actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in 
designating the person who is to be clothed with that im- 
portant trusty 

Fellow-citizens! these words of the legacy of the 
father of his country were not addressed to any 
sect or to any party, bu' to each individual member 
of the Union, of whom he was taking leave with the 
parting advice and blessing of a parent. It is a 
subject which comes home to " each man's business 
and bosom," and in the just regard we pay to it, 
each one becomes the champion of his own and his 
brother's rights and liberties! In following the 
dictates of Washington we can never err; — he has 
taught us to frown indignantly upon him who would 
create sectional distinctions amongst us, to beware 
of that man who would attempt to enfeeble the 
sacred ties which now link tosjether the various 



17 

parts of our confederacy ; — let us cherish the ad- 
vice as an admonition from heaven ! — What is the 
relation in which an absolute monarch stands to 
his subjects? It is, that the exercise of imperative 
power supports the whims and interests of an indi- 
vidual in opposition to the equal rights of millions. 
Fellow-citizens ! in as much as sectional feelings 
are allowed to predominate — in as much as the in- 
terests of one portion of the community are ensured 
protection at the expense of the others — so far do 
we attack the fundamental principles of freedom, 
the possession of equal rights — so far do we become 
fit subjects for the yoke of slavery ! 

It is our bounden duty to select as the supporter 
of the constitution, and the administration of its laws, 
a champion of equal rights — one in whose breast the 
spirit of freedom in its simplicity and holiness is 
inherent — one born and brought up in the school of 
Washington, Jefferson, and Madison: — not the in- 
tended supporter of sectional interests — not the 
avowed patron of the army and navy — not the ex- 
clusive friend of commerce, or of manufacturers, 
or of internal improvements and agriculture, but 
the firm, just, and moderate guardian and supporter 
of the well being of the whole so far as they are 
conducive to the welfare of the nation ! 

Fellow-citizens ! insuring by our attention to the 
subject, the election of such an one, and scrupu- 
lously guarding against the introduction of foreign 
habits, manners, and views of things ; and never 
losirjg sight of the dictates of common-sense in the 
imposing plausibility of etiquette, but relying upon 
the goodness of Divine Providence for a continuance 
of its blessings, let us live in the brilliant and virtuous 
hope that the blessed sun of liberty, whose primal 
beams have glorified our country, will, while yet in 

C 



18 



its morningr honr, awaken the universal family of 
marjki'd to a knowledge of their rights, and extend 
its heaven born influence over an emancipated 
world. 



THE END. 




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